3 cancer scientists awarded $500K NY medical prize

FILE - This May 25, 2004 file photo shows aspirin tablets. Aspirin, one of the world's oldest and cheapest drugs, has shown remarkable promise in treating colon cancer in people with certain genetic mutations that often play a role in the disease. The study appears in the Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Dave Einsel)

Lord Maurice Saatchi poses for photos at his office in central London, Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. Saatchi's wife, best-selling Irish novelist Josephine Hart, died from ovarian cancer in 2011, and he describes his wife’s cancer treatment as “medieval”, and is proposing a parliamentary bill to legalize the ability of doctors to use experimental therapies even if there is no proof they work. Saatchi acknowledges his bill, aimed at encouraging new therapies and speeding up access to new drugs, is driven by grief for his wife, and that the bill may not make it into law, but he has wide support from numerous members of parliament and he remains hopeful about giving new opportunities to doctors and their patients.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Lord Maurice Saatchi poses for photos at his office in central London, Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. Saatchi's wife, best-selling Irish novelist Josephine Hart, died from ovarian cancer in 2011, and he describes his wife’s cancer treatment as “medieval”, and is proposing a parliamentary bill to legalize the ability of doctors to use experimental therapies even if there is no proof they work. Saatchi acknowledges his bill, aimed at encouraging new therapies and speeding up access to new drugs, is driven by grief for his wife, and that the bill may not make it into law, but he has wide support from numerous members of parliament and he remains hopeful about giving new opportunities to doctors and their patients.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Vicki Gilbert sits on stone steps in Wiltshire, England in this undated photo made available by the family on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. In 2010, Gilbert was diagnosed with breast cancer and then found she carries the mutated BRCA1 gene which may make her pre-disposed to ovarian cancer. Gilbert decided to have ovaries removed to prevent the potential onset of further cancer, and her breast cancer is in remission. A huge international effort involving more than 100 institutions and genetic tests on 200,000 people has uncovered dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal further a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, scientists reported Wednesday, March 27, 2013. It’s the latest mega-collaboration to learn more about the intricate mechanisms that lead to cancer. (AP Photo)

In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo University of Iowa professor Jeff Murray talks about his genetic profile during his honors seminar on personal genetics in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)

In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo professor Jeff Murray talks to University of Iowa students in his personal genetics class in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)

In this Oct. 29, 2012 photo professor Jeff Murray teaches a personal genetics class at the University of Iowa in which students had the option of sending saliva samples so a testing company could use DNA to unlock some of their most personal health and family secrets. The class, taught at Iowa for the first time, is part of a growing movement in higher education to tackle the rapidly advancing field of personal genetics, which is revolutionizing medicine and raising difficult ethical and privacy questions. (AP Photo/Brian Ray)

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Three scientists at universities in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Oregon whose research has helped transform cancer treatment will share one of the richest prizes in medicine and biomedical research.

Dr. Peter Nowell of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Janet Rowley of the University of Chicago and Dr. Brian Druker of Oregon Health and Science University will receive the $500,000 annual Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research next month, the medical center announced Tuesday. The prize, one of the largest in medicine and science in the United States, is awarded to those who have changed the course of medical research.

Medical center officials called the trio "visionary scientists" whose work has given hope to cancer patients around the world. The researchers will officially receive the award May 17 at a ceremony at the medical center.

"These individuals exemplify the extraordinary impact that painstaking research can have on the lives of countless individuals," said James J. Barba, president and chief executive officer of Albany Medical Center.

Nowell's research at Penn in Philadelphia was the first to show that a genetic defect could be responsible for cancer, His work has led to numerous discoveries into the growth of cells related to cancers and other disorders.

Rowley's discoveries of chromosome abnormalities in leukemia secured a common agreement among scientists, physicians and the general public that cancer is, in fact, a genetic disease.

Druker, an oncologist in Portland, Ore., used earlier work by Nowell and Rowley to develop a lifesaving treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia that specifically targets the leukemia cells without harming healthy cells.

The Albany Medical Center Prize was established in 2000 by the late Morris "Marty" Silverman, a New York City businessman who wanted to encourage health and biomedical research.